In today's telephony and communication networks, inter-carrier switches or networks provide connections between various networks corresponding to various communications carriers. Long distance termination providers, for example, may utilize an inter-carrier switch to provide connections between carriers corresponding to calling parties and various other interconnected carriers corresponding to called parties. In such cases, the inter-carrier network is likely connected to multiple exchanges for completing calls to a calling party provider, which exchanges may allow the inter-carrier network to employ various termination routes, for example, based on cost and/or other criteria.
Vendors operating the multiple exchanges connected to an inter-carrier network may assess a variety of surcharges based on certain performance metrics associated with the inter-carrier network. Often, vendors operating exchanges charge inter-carrier networks fees based on a number or percentage of calls to unallocated, or otherwise invalid, phone numbers, that have been routed to the exchanges from the inter-carrier network. As such, the routing of many calls to unallocated numbers via an inter-carrier network can be very costly.